LIRR: Computerized switch system will cut delays

The sleek, state-of-the-art switching and signal system that the Long Island Rail Road is putting the finishing touches on this weekend may save you a little bit of time in your commute, railroad officials said Friday.

But the changeover must be completed first.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the LIRR is conducting final tests on the new microprocessor-based "supervisory control system" at Jamaica Station - the busiest hub of the busiest commuter rail system in the nation. The railroad will run severely limited service this weekend to accommodate the project.

Starting Monday, train directors will begin using the new system to control switches and signals just west of Jamaica. The project is scheduled to be complete on Nov. 7 when the computerized system takes control of switches and signals east of Jamaica.

Since 1913, Jamaica's 208 switches and 144 signals have been operated by massive, steel Model 14 interlocking machines inside three different towers. Tower train directors have monitored and controlled train traffic in one specific area by throwing mechanical levers. Directors in different towers communicated via phone.

"They're blind, essentially, to what's happening east or west of them," said LIRR signal construction engineer, Edward Koch, who is helping lead the "Jamaica Cutover" project.

The new system makes the towers obsolete. Directors will do everything from Jamaica Central Control - a newly built room in the sixth floor of the adjacent AirTrain Building.

On 11 computer work stations in the room, train directors will move track switches and control signals with the click of a mouse.

LIRR officials said the consolidation, for the first time, allows train directors using a giant monitor to simultaneously watch over all train traffic at Jamaica.

"Decision-making is really improved," said Koch, who added that train directors will be able to more quickly route a moving train around a broken-down one, reducing delays for passengers.

With the multiple redundancies and increased surge protection built into the new system, LIRR officials said Jamaica will be better able to withstand, and bounce back, from an incident like the electrical fire at one control tower on the morning of Aug. 23. Train service was disrupted for a full week as crews worked around the clock to inspect and repair hundreds of wires fried in the blaze.

With a computer-based switching system, Jamaica may have been back up and running at full capacity later that same afternoon, LIRR chief engineer Robert Puciloski said.

Another advantage of the new system is that it can be expanded to accommodate added and reconfigured track switches at Jamaica - an impossibility with the antiquated interlocking machines.

LIRR officials say they plan to eventually control all the signals and switches throughout the LIRR's 700 miles of track from the new control room, but that ability could be 20 years away.The new system for the $56-million "Jamaica Cutover" project was designed by Ansaldo STS, which also designed the original Model 14 interlocking machines when the company was known at Union Switch & Signal, founded by engineering pioneer George Westinghouse Jr. in 1881.

Williams said the LIRR hopes to donate an old machine to the Smithsonian Institution.